2.5X Touring

By Chris O'Leary, Edmonton Journal

Originally published: March 8, 2011

The image is overpowering. Leaning up against the 2011 Subaru Forester 2.5X in a car wash is a sumo wrestler, posing with his hand behind his head, wash-wand playfully pointed skyward.

In large pink lettering, with a font that looks as if it was made solely for exotic clubs is the phrase, “Sexy comes standard.”

While Subaru deserves credit for its fun adverts, the idea conveyed isn’t entirely accurate. The 2011 Forester doesn’t make you swoon right off the bat. It didn’t make me swoon, anyway. It’s much tougher, though, to come up with an ad campaign that demonstrates how an averagelooking sport-utility vehicle with a forgettable, albeit functional interior can gradually win you over (try to incorporate a sexy sumo into that).

If purchasing a vehicle is about bringing home what you need more than what you want, the week I spent with the Forester 2.5X with Touring package hammered that point home. The Forester looks like your standard SUV in its exterior, feels like a roomy station wagon on the inside and performs somewhere in between when it’s on the road.

The Forester boasts a 170-horsepower four-cylinder engine and 174 pound-feet of torque; the torque is an upgrade over the 2010 edition (170 lb.-ft.). Some reviewers have complained about a jumpy/jerky nature in the Forester, but it’s only something to grow accustomed to with the vehicle. I found I didn’t notice it after driving for a few days.

The Forester offers a smooth ride in town and on the highway, and with a plethora of space inside, it would be great for long trips or the daily hauls that families have to make.

The Forester is supposed to average 9.9 L/100 km in the city, but I was getting more in the range of 12 in the week I had the vehicle. The particularly frigid temperatures that week and the inefficiency of its new engine need to be taken into consideration, though. As the engine breaks in and the fuel efficiency gets closer to where it should be, the Forester will grow on you as you get to know it.

It’s a comfortable ride in every way imaginable, from the heated seats (and 10-way electronically adjustable driver’s seat) to the ease that you have in shoulder checking and backing up. The Forester has a throwback feel to it in that your behind-and-aroundyou views are basically unobstructed. It may be a simple observation, but it was nice to be more than mostly sure that I was safe to change lanes, or that there was nothing coming from my left or right while I backed up that I didn’t see.

As much as the all-wheel drive aids the fuel needle in ticking away like a stopwatch, it’s also reassuring and adds fun to the driving, especially in an Edmonton winter. The vehicle feels secure motoring over icy stretches of road and ice-rink-like parking lots, and its height is ideal for those random, merciless dumps of snow we’ve been prone to this winter.

These realizations, in my case at least, came with time. My first impression of the Forester wasn’t great. Again, there’s nothing wrong with the vehicle; it just didn’t bowl me over with its esthetics.

It seems that Subaru didn’t go out of its way to glitz the Forester up on the inside. The stereo is simple, and despite its diversity (MP3/ USB/auxillarycapable/statellite/ Bluetooth), if music is a part of your driving experience, you’ll be upgrading quickly.

Even small things like the automatic locks are frustrating, forcing you to manually hit the button, as opposed to it locking once the vehicle reaches a certain speed or popping unlocked when you put the vehicle in park.

The console is as straightforward as you can imagine and the cupholders are unfriendly, taking form as two large, square-shaped openings between the seat that don’t hold cups well at all.

With time, however, these are things you can get used to. Once you’ve adapted to the Forester, you start to realize just how compatible it is with this city, especially in the winter.

If you can stomach its appetite for fuel (cue that sumo again), the Forester does have its own unique sex appeal.